


Pork Soda

by cepzia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, but we all know hes not dead, can i get uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh comfort with a side of wlw/mlm solidarity?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 18:23:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cepzia/pseuds/cepzia
Summary: Alternatively titled: Sick of Losing SoulmatesIt's been almost two years since Takashi was pronounced dead, and a year since Keith and those other kids went missing. But Adam is still so sad, and can't move on. Teuila decides to change that.~~~I noticed there is a parental relationship between Pidge and Shiro, a brotherly relationship between Keith and Shiro, and a mentor/student relationship between Lance and Shiro, but there isn't much between Hunk and Shiro. I decided to change that, as well as add one of my favorite headcanons for Hunk: he has an older sister





	Pork Soda

The doorbell rung three times in a row in quick succession. _Ring ring ring!_

Then again, once the visitor decided Adam was too slow to answer. _Ring ring ring!_

It almost happened a third time, but Adam opened his apartment’s door before that occurred.

The visitor was Teuila Garrett, Takashi’s best friend. Adam wasn't close enough with her to see her without Takashi being there, so this visit was unexpected. Especially since it was ten pm, she carried a bluetooth speaker, and wore a determined expression. Before Adam could ask what was going on, she was speaking.

“You lost the love of your life right after breaking up with him, and then lost his little brother, who is basically your little brother.”

Adam wanted to point out that he knew this. That it’s the same reason he isn’t working and spending every day huddled up on his bed wondering what he could have done to reverse it, but Teuila didn’t leave any room for him to speak.

“I know that’s a hard thing to come back from. But I lost my best friend- the man I’ve known since we were five- as well as my baby brother. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s pretty similar. And you need to move on. I’m not saying you have to forget them, but you need to stop being sad. He wouldn’t want us to be.”

Then Teuila was walking inside the apartment.

Adam was confused with a side of annoyance. He turned his head to watch her. “What are you-“

“I’m helping you,” Teuila said, not slowing her determined pace until she was in Adam’s living room. “Shiro told me that if anything happened to him, he’d want me to move on and be happy. He said he doesn’t want to be the source of missed opportunities.”

Adam remembered being told the same thing. Apparently he knew the risks of his occupation, and was afraid of them. “But why are you here so late? And what’s with the speaker?”

“I’ve always thought music is the key to happiness, even if temporary,” Teuila said. She placed the speaker on his coffee table as Adam turned and shut the door. He had walked over to her by the time she had brought out her phone from her jean pocket. She scrolled through her music playlists as Adam asked his next question.

“At ten at night?”

“Yes.” She had decided on a song and pressed play.

It began with a fuzzy sort of sound, with voices saying indistinguishable words. Teuila turned it up enough to fill the room without being too loud, and turned to Adam.

“Shiro always cheered me up by making the best of things. He has told me he’s done the same sort of thing thing with you,” she said. Adam was wondering why she was telling him this until she spoke again.

“So when I say he’d want us to take a break from sadness with a 10pm dance party, I _know_ he’d want us to take a break from sadness with a 10pm dance party.”

Then the lyrics started with quiet voices that quietly got louder.

_Pineapples are in my head…_  
Got nobody ‘cause I’m braindead…  
Pineapples are in my head…  
Got nobody ‘cause I’m braindead…

Teuila held out her hand to Adam, letting her shoulders bounce to the beat as it picked up

“I’m not going to dance with you at ten pm,” Adam said.

Teuila retracted her hand and held both her hands in fists by her shoulders as she shook her shoulders more to the beat. “What, you hate lesbians or something?”

“No, I’m just not going to be a part of ridiculous ideas,” Adam said.

Teuila smiled and started moving her feet, sliding closer to Adam until she was right next to him. “When it comes to making yourself happy, my friend, nothing is ridiculous.”

This was a wise statement, which was weird since it was said by a woman dancing like that. Adam sighed. “I’m-“

“Just join me Adam and you’ll have fun,” Teuila said, holding out her hand once again. Her other hand was behind her neck so her elbow pointed up, and she bounced to the beat.

Her hair, which reached her hips, was getting messy from her fingers running through them and her head turning as she danced. But she somehow made it look attractive. And that’s being thought by Adam, the gayest man he knows.

So he decided to join her. “Fuck it,” he said, taking her hand.

“Hell yeah,” Teuila said with a smile.

She reached to take Adam’s other hand. She pulled and pushed them so they twisted together to the beat, and she continued to bounce with her knees. It was an addictive sort of positivity, so Adam soon joined her.

At one point Adam was twirled and let go, so the two danced separately but kept with the beat together. As Adam got more into it and his smile grew, so did Teuila’s. The two sang along with the chorus.

“Pineapples are in my head, got nobody ‘cause I’m braindead.”

The next lyrics struck Adam in a strange way though.

_We drank pork soda with tangled legs I won’t forget how you looked at me then_

It plunged Adam’s mind into a memory.

The beach, water washing over two pairs of legs, as the owners of them laughed at a dumb joke, soda bottles in hands. Adam looked into Takashi’s eyes, so dark and bold, and knew he loved him.

_Why can’t we laugh now like we did then? How come I see you and ache instead?_

The rest of the song faded out from Adam's mind. He stopped dancing. He stared and one point on the floor.

“Adam?” Teuila asked, disappointment and worry in her voice.

“Why can’t I just move on?” he asked, to himself and her. Why do even song lyrics affect him like that? Takashi is gone. He has to get used to that. Why can’t he?

Teuila sighed, and a moment later the music stopped

_Got nobody ‘cause I’m-_

Then Teuila’s hands were on his shoulders turning him around to face her. Then a soft hand tilting his face up to hers.

“Look, I know it’s hard to move on. I don’t expect you to get over the love of your life in one song,” she said.

Adam focused on her eyes. Brown, so dark they were almost black. Comforting, yet hard.

“It took me this long to do it myself. And now that I am, I’m helping you. Because you are very important to Shiro. He made that very clear. Which means you're important to me. I know it will take time, but it’s a process we all have to go through. Because if we get hung up on the past, we’ll never get to the future.”

He wasn’t really looking into her eyes. He wasn’t making that connection. He was merely observing her eyes as he focused on what she was saying.

“I know that,” he said, “I just don’t want to accept that he’s gone. I feel like it’s giving up on him.”

“That’s the thing,” Teuila said, guiding Adam to his couch. She sat him down and sat herself next to him. Closely, but with enough distance for him to be comfortable. They faced each other.

“He doesn’t want you to feel that way. He wants you to be happy. More than anything.”

“How can you be sure?” Adam asked. Whenever he told himself that he got less and less sure.

“Because there comes a time in life when you realize you are going to die, and that’s scary,” Teuila said, “So when that happened to him, he visited me and said: “Teuila, when I die, I don’t want you to miss me. I want you to move on and continue living your life.” Then when he met you, and fell in love, he told me that he wants you to be happy, because that would make him the happiest man in the world.”

Adam didn’t know when he started crying, but Teuila was wiping away his tears with a gentle finger.

“He said: “Teuila, he doesn’t move on easily. He told me he’s still not totally over his grandmother’s death, and it’s been two years. You move on easily. Help him, because if I die in space I want him to move on and fufill his dreams.” He thought about you a lot. And knew the risks of going out there. But he had to. It’s been his dream since he was little.”

Adam choked out a sob. Because she’s right. “But now he’s gone.”

Teuila’s arms were around him, surrounding him in a hug. She smelled like the smell of being too close to strangers. But she doesn’t feel like a stranger. Her voice rumbled her chest against his own as she spoke. “That wasn’t in his control. Or yours or mine or anyone’s. It was an accident, some trick of fate.”

And they stayed like that for a few more minutes. Adam, his arms tightly wrapped around Teuila’s waist, his head in her shoulder, crying his eyes out. Teuila, her arms comfortingly around Adam’s torso, gently rocking them back and forth like a big sister.

Adam cried, because the stubborn part of him, deep inside, was finally loosing its grip. He was mourning the lost of Takashi, the love of his life.

But after both infinity and a single moment, his tears dried out. And he felt like crying again because of it, because it felt like he’s not really missing Takashi if he’s not crying a lot.

“I feel so bad,” he said, and Teuila rubbed her hand up and down his back gently.

“It’s okay to feel those feelings. You have to accept them in order to move on,” she said, and it sounded to Adam like she was speaking from experience.

Adam sat up and Teuila let go of him. He rubbed his eyes, and realized his glasses were taken off and left of the coffee table long ago.

“Thanks. For everything,” he said.

“I didn’t do anything. That was all you, and Shiro. He wanted me to help you,” Teuila said.

“… Did he talk about me often?” Adam asked, watching Teuila’s face for an answer. It came quickly and without hesitation.

“Very,” she said.

“Did he love me a lot?”

“Yes.”

“Did he love others like that?”

“Of course.”

Adam was a little put down by that, and he watched his socked feet in his carpet. Does that mean he’s not special to Takashi? He’s always been very special to Adam.

“But he was ready to marry you,” Teuila said, sensing Adam’s feelings.

Adam looked back up to her. She’s right. You don’t marry just anyone.

“You two were meant to be together. I can tell. He’s loved people like he loved you, but he’s never been affected by anyone like how you affected him.”

“What?”

“He sees you and wants to change. To be a better person. He wants to make you happy, no matter what.” Teuila reaches out and holds Adam’s hand in both of her own. “I’ve never seen anyone else do that to him.”

And that says a lot. Because Teuila knows every relationship Takashi has ever been in.

Was he really made to be with Takashi?

“Do you believe in soulmates?” The question is random and reminds Adam that this whole night is random and crazy and unpredictable. Yet it’s also comforting.

“Yes,” Teuila answers.

“Do you think we were soulmates?”

“Of course I do. You two are perfect for each other.”

“You and him seem pretty perfect too,” Adam said. Maybe Takashi has that affect on people. Maybe he just fits well with everyone.

“I believe that there are multiple kinds of soulmates. He’s your romantic soulmate, and he’s my platonic soulmate.”

“What does that make us, soulmates in law?” Adam asked with a chuckle.

Teuila chuckled too. “I guess so.”

They fell into a silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but Adam was too busy thinking to feel the mood of the room. He turned and let himself fall against the back of the couch. Teuila joined him.

“Do you think he’s still out there?” he asked.

“Oh I know it,” Teuila said, “He promised me he wouldn’t die, and Takashi Shirogane never breaks promises.”

Adam had to laugh at that, because there's no way to tell what will happen in space, yet he still promised her and she still believes him.

Teuila joined him. The two were laughing at something so stupid yet so powerful.

“I think my brother’s still out there too,” she said once the laughter died down. “And Keith. And those other kids.”

That's a nice thought. That they're all okay. "Maybe they're together."

"That'd be weird. And cool," Teuila said.

"Yeah. Do you think they'll come back?" Adam realized he was asking a lot of questions, but Teuila didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah maybe, if space gets boring," Teuila said.

Adam made another realization. He's okay. He's not crying at the thought of Takashi. He's in no way healed, that might take years. But he isn't shutting out thoughts or repressing his feelings. It feels nice.

Then there's the guilt. A part of him is telling him _"Why are you smiling? He's **gone**. Do you not miss him?"_ and he doesn't like it. But he knows now he has to have these little happy moments in order to move on.

So he's ready to have them. Dance parties at 10pm, walks in the park so early in the morning that he's the only one there to enjoy the fresh air, watching the sun rise over the horizon at the beach. Teuila joined him for a lot of them, to cheer him up when the guilt got too strong.

And they grew closer. Adam met her mothers, and heard about their son Hunk, an engineer and chef with a heart of gold. He learned more about the Colleen Holt, and her missing family, a group of nerdy geniuses. He contacted the Espinosa family, and learned about Lance, and his love of the stars. They coped together, and all had the same spark of hope that their loved ones were still out in space, having some sort of crazy adventure together.

So in short, all of the Paladins' families were together when they came home.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed, please leave a comment! I love hearing what you think about my writing :)


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